Ava's Quilt-Finally Finished

I know you've seen this quilt-top a million times in process, but I finally was able to finish quilting it and put the binding on. I quilted this in my machine at home. I did stripes all the way around the border, and then did stitch-in-the-ditch around each white square. It was pretty cumbersome, but I wanted to try it on my machine.

Remember? All the hearts are either pieces of Ava's outgrown clothes, or fabric scraps.

For the backing I purchased pink and white polka dots in a larger print from Joanne's.

I love that Ava loves it and that it brings my kids warmth and joy to know that their Momma made them something...:)

Of course, like all of you, my heart is breaking over what happened in Haiti. I am so grateful that we are safe. That my children have food and clean water. That they have blankets to sleep with. Last night I dreamed terrible dreams over the devastation, and everytime I awoke I prayed that God would send much peace that way.

Have a peaceful weekend friends.

xo

Chrissie

Quilting Week Six: We're Quilting, We're Really Quilting!

We made it to Week Six, but I've got a few confessions to make:

• My quilt is far from perfect. None of my squares really match up evenly. My girlfriend told me what I did wrong. I pressed all my seams the same way. Apparently you need to alternate pressing rows. For example, the seams on the first row should be pressed to the right. The next row should be pressed to the left. And so on. Lesson learned!
• Even though I'm showing you how to quilt today, I'm not done with mine. Nope.
• This might be the last quilt I "quilt". I think I'll stick to the fun part, which is making the quilt tops. Next time I think I'll send it out to a professional. I'm glad I'm doing it, but it's a lot of work!

Okay, so let's baste the quilt!

1. Make sure your floor is clean and lay your back fabric down. You want it nice and tight, but not stretched tight. Use duct tape to tape it down.
2. Lay your batting down. I used a pre-packaged queen size batting. Starting in the center, smooth it out working toward the edges. It will still look wrinkly and puckered, but that's okay.

3. Using the directions on the can, spray your basting spray over the batting. Carefully lay your quilt top down on top, and working from the center agian, smoothe out the fabric to the edges.

4. I used curved safety pins to adhere all the layers together. You should pin every 4" to 6". I'm aware the basting spray AND pins aren't necessary, but it made me feel "safer".

5. Remove the tape and cut off the excess batting, leaving a few inches on.

6. Using a straight edge and a chalk marking pencil, I drew straight lines all the way around the border. (Be sure to use water to remove the marks before any pressing!)

7. Use a straight stitch to quilt all the straight lines.

8. Using a straight stitch, sew around each heart.

Because of the imperfections I mentioned earlier, I decided to go with a decorative stitch when quilting the squares. I know a lot of people would "stitch in the ditch" along all these lines, but I am a glutton for punishment!:)

My goal is to finish the quilt this week, and then we'll bind it.

I can't wait to wash it and see the finished product!

Quilting Week Five: Finishing Your Quilt Top

Hello friends! Sorry I'm late posting this...I've been having some major computer drama. I think my husband got my laptop issues resolved last night, while our home computer that got struck by lightening is still at the computer Dr.
Anyhoo... let's finish your quilt top!

Remember your two yards of fabric? It's time to cut it up.
Cut 6 (6 1/2" strips). Piece to make 2 (6 1/2" x 48 1/2") top and bottom borders and 2 (6 1/2" x 60 1/2") side borders.


Cut 8 (2 1/4"wide) strips for binding. Set these aside for later (they are for binding the quilt)

Cut out four hearts using your heart template (wow, my little template has seen better days!:)
Remember we are still 1/4" seam and pressing as we go. Add your side borders to the quilt. Below you see one pinned right before I sewed them on.

Here it is with the two side borders.

Make your four heart squares just like you made the other 80. Sew them to the ends of the top and bottom borders. Then sew your top and bottom borders onto the quilt top.

Your quilt top is finished!

Now for the actual quilting part. I know a lot of bloggers and quilters alike like to send out their quilt top to be quilted and bound. I am actually going to quilt mine myself. I've never actually done it, so this is a new venture for me.

What about you? Do you like to send out your quilts, or quilt them yourself?

Let me know how things are going...

I know some of you are interested in starting from the beginning. Go here if you want to start this quilt from the beginning.

Next Wednesday...Week Six: Quilt backing, batting, and quilt top

Quilting Week Four: Setting your blocks

I spent a lot of time taking pictures this week during the process of setting the blocks, and than wouldn't you know it? Our computer got struck by lightning on Monday night. Our hard drive is down and my husband hasn't had time to see if he can retrieve anything, so I'm going to go through the steps with you as best I can.
I'm so sorry! I am a very visual learner myself, but I will try to explain as clearly as I can.

You should have 80 squares with the hearts stitched on. I ironed them all so they were nice and crisp to work with. Lay them on the floor and move them around until you like the way they look. This part is really fun.
Make 10 piles of eight. ( I labeled mine with a sticky note by rows).

When you are ready to sew your first line, take two squares and lay them so the heart fabrics are touching. Sew a straight stitch with a 1/4" seam allowance. Continue until you have your first row of eight. Press all of your seam allowances in the same direction. Continue until you have all 10 rows done. From row to row, press in opposite directions so the seam allowances will offset when you are ready to join the rows.

You sew your rows the same way, with a 1/4" seam allowance.

I sewed the first five rows together, and then the second five rows together.

Don't forget to keep ironing and pressing your seams.

Here is a picture of mine yesterday with the top and bottom ready to be sewn together.

Voila!

I love how colorful it is. Ava likes to find all the hearts from her clothing.

I am going to add a week onto the project so I can photograph step-by-step adding the side borders and top and bottom. If I can get to the old photos I will come back to this post and re-write it with the step-by-step pictures.

We're getting so close!
I would love to see any pictures of yours, no matter where you are in the process. Even if you've just picked out your fabrics, let me see!!

As always, leave any questions for me in the comments and I will try to answer them.:)

Quilting Week Three: Sewing Your Hearts

Ok, it's confession time. It takes a long time to cut out the hearts, right? I have 40 cut out. How about you? Have you cut all 80 out yet? How about just one? Since I'm half way through, I decided to take a break cutting and sew my hearts. Either way, let's continue the process and sew our hearts to the muslin square.
I promise this part is super easy!

**(Sorry about this image being sideways, for some reason blogger won't let me put it horizontal.)
Lay out 3-5 muslin pieces and line them up evenly. Then lay one heart on each square. I do this so they will all look even. It doesn't have to be totally perfect, but you want them to be pretty close. So I just eyeball them.

Then use 3 pins to secure your heart to the muslin square.

There are a lot of different ways to sew your heart on. I chose the most simple way, which is to use a straight stitch. Sew as close to the edge as you can. If you want it to fray a little more, you don't have to sew it as close. I chose this stitch because when we go back to actually quilt everything, we will use the same stitch again.

That's that.

If it's any consolation, using the interfacing under the hearts makes the sewing much easier.

It's pretty quick, and definitely satisfying. Now the quilt is really starting to come together!

Next week we will be sewing all of the muslin squares together.

If you have any pictures of your progress, I would love to see them.

Leave me a comment with a link to your blog so we can see what fabrics you have chosen and where you're at.

Once again, please also leave any questions you may have and I'll answer them in the comment section as well.

If you want to go back at all, here are the links again:
Week One: Supplies You'll Need

Week Two: Cutting Your Fabrics

Don't forget about this awesome give-away either. You can enter up to three times!

Quilting Week Two: Cutting The Fabrics

It's time to cut our fabric! Some of you are using fabric, and some of you are using clothes that your children have outgrown. For Ava's quilt, I'm using a combination of both. The process is the same for both.
1. Pick out your piece of clothing (or fabric.)
2. I made a 6 x 6" template out of cardboard. Lay it on your fabric and loosely cut around it so you have a piece of fabric .

3. I just wanted to show you it doesn't have to be perfect.

4. Iron your fabric to the fusible interfacing. This gives the fabric a sturdiness, which will make cutting out your hearts much easier.

5. Print out this template to use for the hearts.

6. Pin your template on the fabric.

7. Cut around the template.

8. Here is a picture of your fabric heart. Now do that 79 more times!:)

9. To cut your muslin, cut 14 (6 1/2" -wide) strips.

10. Now cut your strips into 84 (6 1/2" x 6 1/2") squares.

11. You will have 84 muslin squares and 80 fabric hearts. ( When we cut the fabric for the borders later, we will make 4 more hearts for the corners of the quilt.)

Cutting all this fabric is a little time consuming, but I thought it was fun, and easy. Next week we will be sewing the hearts to the squares!

If you would like to make this quilt with us, go back to Quilting Week One to start.

I can't wait to see what fabrics you ladies have chosen. I personally used a lot of Ava's clothing and fabric scraps that I already had, so all 80 of my hearts are different!
Again, if you have any questions, leave a comment and I (or one of our quilting buddies) will answer it in the comments as well.
Have fun!

Quilting Week One:Supplies You'll Need

I've decided to rename our quilt: Contemporary Heart Quilt :)

It will take us 6 weeks to make this quilt. However, if you fall behind it's no big deal. You can always come back on-line and keep going at your own pace.

Week One: Supplies You'll Need
Week Two: Cutting the Fabrics

Week Three: Sewing your Hearts
Week Four: Assemble the Quilt Top

Week Five: Quilt backing, batting, and quilt top
Week Six: Binding your Quilt

This week we are gathering the supplies we'll need to make the quilt. Let's start with the basics:

You will need a rotary cutter, mat, and straight edge. I have the Olfa brand and I am very happy with them. I would purchase extra blades too. When you are cutting your material it should cut like butter. When the blade gets dull you'll need to replace them.

Straight pins. I usually keep one set by my sewing machine and one by the iron.

A pair of fabric scissors that you use just for fabric, and a seam ripper.

Thread. I like to use Mettler, but I believe they are only sold at Quilting specialty shops. Jo-Ann's and Michaels don't carry them. Make sure you buy "quilting thread".

A sewing machine.
(unless you are planning on sewing the whole thing by hand...;)

You don't need a machine with all the bells and whistles. Any old machine will do.

An iron and ironing board. (I just bought that little mini-board at Jo-Ann's on sale for $6.99)

I really want a Rowenta iron made for sewing and quilting. At $110-$130 it is not in my budget right now. But I hear it's a "must-have" for serious quilters. Anyway, any old iron will do.

Materials Needed:

• 3 yards of muslin
• 2 yards of interfacing
• 80 six" squares in assorted prints (from varying fabrics or clothing items)
• 2 yards of fabric for border
• 4 yards of fabric for backing
• twin size batting

Next Wednesday we will begin cutting the fabric. I'll provide you with a heart template and all the step by step directions to cut out the muslin squares and hearts and prepare them to be sewn.

If you have any questions at all leave a comment and I'll answer them in the comments as well. I know a few of you have decided to make this quilt along with me and I'm so excited!

Let's make a quilt!

When Old Red Barn did a Quilt Along, lots and lots of people were inspired.

Me included. I have plans to make this quilt for one of my boys as a Christmas gift.

But first, I'm going to make this one. Except it's gonna be a lot cooler.

This quilt is originally called Country Hearts (by Jackie S. Underwood).

I plan on using waaaaaay more updated fabrics, including pieces of my daughter's now outgrown wardrobe. Sara's mother made an adorable one using baby girl clothes and I filed it somewhere in my brain archives.

Are you interested in making one with me? I will break it down STEP-BY-STEP and be available to answer any questions that you have. I don't have any quilting buddies in my real life:), so how about we make a blogging quilt circle. If you are interested leave me a comment and I will start a real tutorial.

If not, I'll show you my progress anyway.:)

oh!, and thanks for the sugar advice. I'll let you know how we do.